The Favorskii Rearrangement: Synthetic Applications

This review deals with the applications of the Favorskii rearrangement in synthetic Organic Chemistry, paying especial attention to the literature appeared after 1980. The mentioned rearrangement plays a key role in many total synthesis due to the fact that important modifications in the structure of the substrate occur during the process. Skeletal rearrangements in acyclic systems, leading to highly branched carboxylic acids and its derivatives, as well as structural changes in cyclic substrates, which result in ring contraction processes, are described. Some examples of Favorskii rearrangements in biosynthetic pathways are also presented.